Current Movie Soundtrack question?...

[Spawn67]

Ok folks since Im out of modern mainstream culture I had a debate with some friends last night. It seems in the 80's,90's, and to some extent the 70's every movie had a theme song or movie soundtrack that went with the movie. Lot's of them being big hits and some where more popular than the movie. I don't hear any nowdays. Do they still do that nowdays? What are some if there are?..

[Mikey]

Seems like today's music isn't as important in movies as it once was.

Even the 90's-2000's trend of the use of heavy metal in movie soundtracks seem to be waning.

Many movies today just use oldies as their main soundtrack ... others use incidental noodling which sounds like it was done on a keyboard.

[MIB41]

I think looking at the music industry for each era explains allot of what was there and what isn't today. Clearly the late 70's and 80's were big years for music and musicals. Having monster films like Saturday Night Fever and Grease catapulted this idea that music could piggyback off the success of movies, if not be a key ingredient that drove them. Enter the 80's and you see Footloose and Purple Rain which also reflected the craze of MTV. Once MTV became ingrained in every aspect of our culture it seemed almost unheard of not to have a video and thus a collection of tunes for every movie out there, even horror films. I mean when you have Alice Cooper singing "The man behind the mask" for a Friday the 13th installment, you know the world has changed around you. But that was before the internet and the ability to download or listen to songs on Youtube.

I think these days, it's not much of an inroad for revenue so there's not much effort given to such ventures. Sure we have gotten some fun ones recently, especially from the hero genre like Guardians and even Deadpool. But I think for the most part, because the industry has changed so much, it's difficult to see a time when you will see a soundtrack sell like they sold in previous eras. That's just the landscape of the business these days unfortunately. I miss those days too. They were fun indeed.

[Donkey Hoatie]

I would imagine the decline of the soundtrack is also due to money issues. Getting the rights for a song can be prohibitively expensive and I can see producers looking at the bottom line of a movie and thinking that money is better spent on acting talent and special effects.

[pmwasson]

Cartoon soundtracks do well. The Frozen songs are very popular with the younger crowd.

[JRT!]

I love soundtracks! Right NOW in my playlist I have a bunch of songs from the various Transformers movies,Batman movies,Spider-Man movies,Purple Rain,Final Girls,Superman Returns,Man of Steel,Breakfast Club,Back to the Future,Goonies,Guardians of the Galaxy,Mannequin,Galaxy Quest,Rocketeer,Starman,Flight of the Navigator,Disturbia,and a bunch of tv shows. Yes,of COURSE the theme music for Greatest American Hero is there! lol!

[Brazoo]

My guess is also that the decline of original theme songs and soundtracks has to do with the fact that music publishing is much less lucrative now.

Some movies still essentially have theme songs - I think it's just less fashionable to use the movie's title in the song. Like, all Bond movies still have them. Deadpool did it at some point - ironically.

The new TV series "Love" has a cute ongoing gag about theme songs - the lead character and his friends create themes for movies that didn't have them before. Like "The Perfect Storm".

[daz71]

i love soundtracks too jrt some of my faves
coogan's bluff
psychomania
rosemary's baby
lady in cement
danger diabolik
blood on satans claw
easy rider
psych -out
and my absolute favourite vampyros lesbos.